By Lucas Guaraldo*
A map developed by researchers from IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands shows that critical areas for biodiversity’s protection in the Legal Amazon are still outside Conservation Units, leaving them vulnerable to illegal deforestation. These ecosystems concentrate a large amount of species of fauna and flora, but are not covered by a specific environmental legislation to protect them.
The map aims to help protect these areas, as well as to serve as a basis for the creation of public policies for sustainable development and the creation of conservation units that include these biodiversity hotspots. In addition, it is hoped to draw attention to the importance of connecting preserved areas, guaranteeing a stable and balanced environment for fauna and flora.
“This map shows areas with great potential for creating protected areas and areas that are extremely important for conservation because they have high biodiversity. We presented this map to show the importance of these areas, even though they are not yet protected. Many of these areas are threatened by deforestation and the expansion of infrastructure, so these areas must be strictly monitored,” warns João Paulo Ribeiro, IPAM researcher and author of the map.
Even outside the traditional protection of parks and ecological stations, these sites protected ensure connectivity between areas of native forest. Legal reserve areas, for example, preserve biodiversity within private properties and play a fundamental role in creating preservation mosaics, uniting areas of native vegetation on different properties.
“According to the Forest Code, rural properties in the Amazon must preserve 80% of their area. This is a tremendous asset that we must look at closely. We have to view these private areas as a way of creating preservation corridors, even if it is necessary to recover areas. The Forest Code implementation should be seen as allied to the protection of biodiversity and needs to be part of any protection strategy in the Amazon and Cerrado,” said André Guimarães, executive director of IPAM.
The map also highlights the biological diversity in non-forest formations in the Amazon, such as the savannahs of Rondônia, which are often overlooked in preservation efforts. According to data from the MapBiomas network, more than 4% of the Amazon is made of non-forest vegetation, totaling 18.5 million hectares.
The maps were presented to representatives of the Netherlands, France, Norway, and Spain embassies, officers from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, and environmentalists. The event was held at the official residence of the Dutch ambassador in Brasilia.
Slow demarcation
According to data collected by the newsletter Um Grau e Meio, produced by IPAM, the creation of conservation units in the Amazon has increased by 3.7% in the last 5 years and now covers 28.4% of the biome. This is fundamental for protecting the biome, given that 50% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon occurs on public land.
In the Cerrado biome, demarcation faces more challenges: only 0.7% increase in Conservation Units over the last five years. Half of the Cerrado is already anthropized – altered by human use to create pastures and crops, for example – and 8% of this remains within parks, stations and other conservation units. In 2023, these areas would account for only 2.5% of the biome’s deforestation, around 26,500 hectares, according to data from SAD Cerrado.
IPAM journalist, lucas.itaborahy@ipam.org.br*